Skywalker Rises

Phase One

Rey paced back and forth, working through the steps she needed to take. She didn't know enough. When she actually thought through what it would really take to go back into the Sith arena, it horrified her that before Mando started questioning her, she thought her only issue was not being seen.

The Mandalorian watched her pace. 

Little Yoda had retreated to the other side of the island to play his game with some of the Caretaker children. They found it uproariously funny when he disappeared and reappeared where they weren't expecting him. 

"Why do you trust me?" she said, stopping in front of the Mandalorian.

He cocked his head to the side. "Why wouldn't I?"

She didn't have a good answer for that. "I'm going to figure out Phase One. I'll let you know when I'm ready for Phase Two."

She returned to her little hut. There was no telling whether she'd return from Phase One clothed, and didn't want to have to explain anything else. She might have glossed over some of the finer points of her interactions with Kylo Ren in her excursions to the past. The Mandalorian seemed to understand it anyway, but Little Yoda was still a child. 

Phase One involved Rey trying to figure out how to go back to the same point in time, but appear in different places in the surroundings with each return. As the Mandalorian had pointed out, if she popped up in the Sith arena right in the middle of all of the Sith, there would be complications. 

She didn't need any more complications than having no idea what she was supposed to do once she got there. And she was too afraid to alter the future by making multiple attempts to change the events as they happened

Rey reached out toward the Bond, and to her dismay, landed in ice cold water. She thrashed and spluttered, inhaling liquid instead of air. Two big hands slid beneath her arms and pulled her out. She dropped onto rough wooden boards, gasping and coughing out water. 

When she got her bearings, she saw that she was on a dock that extended into a shimmering blue lake. Kylo Ren squatted down in front of her.

"Now that was an entrance."

Once she got a few deep breaths, her panicked mind calmed enough to alert her that she had no idea when she was, and that she better find out before they started fighting. 

The look on his face assured her more than anything. This had amused him greatly. 

"Hi," he said.

"The water is cold."

"I'm aware. You really just use the Bond to cross over without looking?"

She frowned. "What do you mean, without looking?"

"I look first. Remember when you appeared on the command deck? I thought you were insane. Or hell-bent on making an entrance." 

Now that she thought about it, anytime he had come to her, she had always been alone, in a safe space. 

"How do you look?" 

"Take those clothes off before you freeze." 

The air was frigid. Not cold enough that she could see her breath, but cold enough that she probably would freeze if she stood in wet clothing for too long. He walked up the dock and toward a small ship up a rise. She thought about going back to Ahch-To and getting dry first, but she traipsed along behind him.

"I'll come with you if you teach me how to look first."

He gave a lazy wave of his hand, not turning. She jogged to catch up with him. 

"Why are you here?"

"I like this place. It's quiet. I come here sometimes when my duties become...heavy."

"It's nice."

"Yes. I haven't tried the swimming. Do you recommend it?"

Had he just made a joke? She rubbed her arms and looked up at him. That was Ben's smile, but his eyes weren't quite right. He was still guarded, still cautious as Kylo Ren. It made her deeply sad. 

"I need your help. Can you teach me how to look before I leap?"

"Why?" He pulled out a big, dark gray towel and handed it to her. She was so cold that her finger tips had begun to turn a faint, dusky blue. 

"I don't like swimming."

"Strip," he commanded. 

"I've had pretty good luck in the past. Finding you alone, I mean." She wasn't sure if he could understand her through her chattering teeth.

"I'm often alone. And you've been lucky."

"You didn't hang out with Hux?"

He snorted. "Oh yes, he was my best friend. We did everything together."

All she could do was shiver, so he took over the task of peeling the sopping wet clothes off and tossing them in a soggy heap on the metal floor. He wrapped the towel around her, squeezing the water from her hair and toweling off her face. 

"You're a mess," he said. 

He wrapped her tightly in the towel and worked on rubbing some warmth back into her skin.

"I assume you're not up for a visit to the First Order? There's a warm shower."

"I'm good." Her teeth still chattered, and she bit her tongue. "Ouch." 

He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her tight. 

"There's a pause," he said. "The space of a breath where I can see your face, but I can also see what's around you. You're thinking too much about me, and not where I am." He kissed her. "Which you should continue to do. I like it that you think about me."

"Until I land in cold water and drown."

"Mm. Not many opportunities for swimming on Jakku, I bet."

She was so tired. The water had siphoned off all of her energy with her body heat.

"I need to practice."

"You practice too much. We could do other things instead."

"Later. I'll come back." She wriggled out of his grasp, and he reluctantly released her.

"As long as you keep the towel on."

"Go somewhere different so I can practice."

She returned to Ahch-To, waited a few minutes, and went back to Kylo Ren. With two more repetitions, she could take that breath and use it to view his surroundings, appearing as near or far from him as she wanted, as long as she could see him.

"What if I had just jumped and you'd been in a small spacecraft. Would I have landed in space?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Don't do that."

Her last return landed her beside him in the tiny little cot in the ship's cabin, and that's where she stayed.